


MTV Unplugged

by tamibrandt



Series: Alice In Chains on Tour '93 [4]
Category: Alice in Chains
Genre: Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:02:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27601826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamibrandt/pseuds/tamibrandt
Summary: A Continuation of AIC on Tour '93, It's a Mad, Mad Season and, The Album That Goes By Many Names
Relationships: Layne Staley/Jerry Cantrell
Series: Alice In Chains on Tour '93 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1989022
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

In March 1996 Jerry filmed a brief cameo for Cameron Crowe’s **_Jerry Maguire_** , playing a copy store clerk inspired by the title character’s memo. “That’s how you become great, man. You hang your balls out there,” he tells Tom Cruise. The scene was shot at a Kinko’s on Sunset Boulevard.

Alex Coletti was a producer at MTV who had been involved with the _Unplugged_ series since it started in 1989. Seven years later, Coletti and the network had plenty of episodes of _Unplugged_ under their belt, and a commensurate amount of experience. Pearl Jam and Nirvana had already filmed their episodes a few years earlier, demonstrating the viability of grunge in an acoustic format.

MTV had asked Alice In Chains numerous times over the years to do a show. Layne had always turned it down. In Coletti’s mind, Alice In Chains had the songs, the depth, and the emotion where, when you stripped it down, you really find something there. Other grunge bands were out there, but Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana were three of the big four that had the songs that fit in an acoustic setting really well. There was no denying that Alice In Chains was going to shine no matter what they did, Layne’s voice and those songs were going to shine through.

MTV approached the band one last time and Layne surprised everyone when he agreed to do _Unplugged_. Rehearsals began in Seattle, although it wasn’t without the normal complications.

Sean would later tell Greg Prato, “It became apparent that unless things seriously change, we can’t go out and play to our potential – at this level. We can’t even get through a fucking week and a half without drama and scary shit going on. That’s about right when I mentally started preparing, like, ‘It’s done.’ Same thing with _MTV Unplugged_ – they kept asking if we’d do it. Up to that moment, it was just a nail-biter. Barely any rehearsing at all, guys not showing – the same shit. Rolled out there and everything worked.” When asked about Sean’s comments, Coletti said, “Clearly there was more going on behind the scenes than I was aware of.”

Sean was right, of course, Sean, Mike, and Jerry would straggle in at different times and Layne barely showed up to rehearsal, if he bothered to show up at all. It was similar to the recording session for Tripod.

Coletti didn’t see the behind-the-scenes drama of Layne’s addiction. At the point that Alice In Chains agreed to do _Unplugged_ Layne was deep in his heroin addiction with a side helping of crack whenever the mood struck him and any other drug he had available at the time. After so many years of drug abuse, his liver was damaged and the drugs were definitely turning against him.

For Coletti’s part, all he saw was a great band that wasn’t continuously on tour so they didn’t have to strip down their live set to the bare minimum for a one-off acoustic show. A few weeks before the show, Coletti flew to Seattle to meet with the band at their rehearsal space to check on how they were adjusting to the parameters of the show – from instruments and gear to stage positioning. The band brought in Scott Olson, who had played with Heart, as a second guitarist to boost the sound on stage. Things were looking good from what Coletti saw.

Layne energetically walked into the room eating a bucket of chicken and greeted him. “Hey, man.” His hands, covered by fingerless gloves, were greasy from eating the chicken. Rather than shake hands, he gave Coletti an elbow bump. In retrospect, Coletti said of the visit, “I do remember going, ‘Oh, cool. Layne’s in awesome form.’ And then when I heard him sing, it was already a home run – this was a slam dunk.”

The thing was it was all a performance for outsiders. Internally, the band was a mess. Layne not showing up for rehearsal or if he did it was for one song. Jerry was drinking. Sean was drinking like a fish. Who knew what Mike had going on that he wasn’t telling anyone about. Yet, it was Layne that got the brunt of accusatory words and glares from their record label and management.

The band traveled to New York City in early April to prepare for the show, which was scheduled for April 10, 1996, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Jerry asked Toby Wright to produce the show which would make Layne feel more at ease. Toby sat in on the few rehearsals at Sony Studios that Layne had actually shown up for and Toby thought they went great. The way he saw it, once Layne found his voice, it took very little effort for it to stay there and the songs sounded amazing. They tried a lot of songs from their back catalog, some worked well, some didn’t, and others had to be scrapped for time.

The show took place at what was once known as the Majestic Theater. The art director renovated it to intentionally look “kind of decrepit.” The stagehands had shot bullets into the upstage walls to create the cracks. But all the flaking paint was beautifully hand-painted and done on purpose. It was a bowl-shaped, semicircle amphitheater which was perfect for the show. It was Layne’s idea to have big candles decorating the stage to keep it dark and moody, as the band never liked bright lights on stage, so Layne himself bought the candles in Seattle. Coletti thought that out of all the bands that had appeared on _Unplugged_ , the stage setup was most perfect for Alice In Chains. It had an old theater feel to it, with a sense of history and a little sense of gloom that set the mood.

Someone in the band had a last-minute request for lava lamps to decorate the stage along with the candles, which wound up adding a visual element he hadn’t anticipated. Lava lamps needed to be heated and turned on for quite a while before they worked properly. Due to the late addition, the lamps were kind of sluggish and not at full-potential. It fit the setting perfectly and yet it was completely by accident that it worked out well that way.

Because Layne had dyed his hair pink before traveling to New York, the lighting director tried to match the background to that. As the band ran through a soundcheck and camera rehearsal, the lighting palette was chosen based on each song the lighting director heard them play. Of course, it helped that the band had a specific setlist for the show and provided it to MTV ahead of time.

Coletti would be responsible for producing the televised performance, splitting his time between the production truck outside and the floor, while Toby would be responsible for producing the audio, working from inside the truck. Because he knew how the band normally sounded in the studio, he would let the band know what sounded good and what needed to be redone.

Under all the superficial stage dressing, there were unforeseen pre-show complications: Jerry had eaten a hot dog from a street vendor and gotten food poisoning. A wastebasket was placed next to his stool onstage in case he felt sick during the show. Sean and Mike were arguing with Jerry about how, in Layne’s condition, there was no way in hell Layne would be able to hit the high notes in some of the songs they’d chosen for the setlist. Layne’s depression had sunk deeper knowing that his own bandmates didn’t have faith in him that he could do the one thing he’d been able to do since he was in high school. Jerry was the only one of them who had complete confidence that Layne could pull it off.

Food poisoning was kicking Jerry’s ass when Mike and Sean appeared in the bathroom to argue with him about the issue. Hell of a time for them to pick an argument with Jerry over Layne’s condition.

“Have you seen Layne since we got here?” Sean asked.

After Jerry threw up for the tenth time, he groaned in pain. Gruffly he replied, “Yeah, I’ve seen him. He’s fine.”

“You’re both in denial,” Mike said. “He’s not fine. You’re not fine. We haven’t played a live show in years. There is no way in hell he could hit the high notes like he did in 1994 with Mad Season.”

“He can do it. There has never been a time when Layne hasn’t been able to get the job done. He may drag his heels. He may want to torture his body. But, he would never sacrifice his voice,” Jerry gritted out and then threw up again.

“There’s a first time for everything,” Sean grumbled.

“There was that time in Missouri where he went to the bathroom in the middle of a song and we had to cancel the show,” Mike pointed out.

Jerry groaned as his stomach clenched. He looked up and glared at Mike, pissed that the bass player brought up that one time out of thousands of shows. “If you want to go there, we can also include the time in Australia when Sean threw a fucking fit over sound issues, tore apart his drum kit, and stormed off the stage like a petulant child. How about that time? We had to ask Jimmy DeGrasso to fill in for a couple of shows so Sean could sleep off a fucking hangover.” Jerry slammed his hand against the toilet seat in anger. “Layne is fucking fine. He can do _this_ show. He agreed to do this show. Why are you two so cynical?”

“He may be here physically, but he’s a goddamn ghost of what he used to be,” Sean replied. “He was nonexistent during the rehearsals for this show.”

“He can hit the high notes. I have complete confidence that he will pull this off. Once he gets his voice where he wants it. He’ll be fine,” Jerry said forcefully and then threw up again. He sat there hunched over the toilet throwing up with Mike and Sean bitching about Layne. He may as well resign himself to the idea that his band, his whole career, his whole fucking life was going to be over after tonight. When it really counted, Layne had never let him down. He didn’t want to imagine that Layne would start now.

According to Randy Biro, no one was expecting this show to get off the ground at all. Everyone was planning on it going south because of Layne’s condition because the band hadn’t been touring or done a live show together in two and a half to three years. Jerry was throwing up the whole time. Layne and Randy were going through withdrawals. The whole thing was a slow-moving train wreck waiting to happen. Randy had run out of heroin and had someone bring some for him to the show. Layne had brought along his own precooked supply, which he carried in an old glass pill bottle covered by a cork top.

Layne hadn’t done enough where he was nodding off and drooling, but Randy was there before Layne went on and saw the singer shoot heroin before he went onstage. Layne didn’t do a lot. He had just enough to chase away withdrawal symptoms and not get dopesick. From what Randy saw, Layne held it together through the whole show. There was no running to the bathroom or anything.

All their friends, management, and record label were at the show. Between Sean and Mike thinking he couldn’t hit the high notes, Jerry had added another stressor by inviting _his_ friends, all four members of Metallica. To say things between Layne and the guys in Metallica were strained was an understatement. There was no love lost between Metallica and Layne. Layne could have cared less about them since James Hetfield and his bandmates made fun of the fact Layne’s addiction had sidelined Alice In Chains from taking on extended tours back in 1994. Layne wasn’t the least bit thrilled to find out all four of them were sitting in the front row, but he tolerated them being there for Jerry’s sake.

Jerry was already out on stage playing the opening strands of _Nutshell_ when he looked up and saw Mike sit down and settle his acoustic bass in his lap. Mike had written “Friends Don’t Let Friends Get Friends Haircuts” on the front of the bass. It was a shot of humor directed at the guys in Metallica for cutting their hair short for the Load and Re-Load albums.

While Mike was synching his bass up to Jerry’s tune, Scott Olson came out and sat down with his acoustic guitar, playing catch up to Jerry’s tempo. Sean followed him out and silently took his place behind the drumkit.

Then, Layne came out with his dyed pink hair, sunglasses, a week-old beard, black t-shirt over a black long-sleeve shirt and black pants, wearing fingerless gloves. Layne, at the peak of health, was a hundred and seventy pounds. The Layne who walked out onstage in April 1996 was a little over a hundred and twenty-something pounds give or take. The crowd applauded as he sat down and immediately went into the first line of the song without any preamble. Randy felt wetness on his cheeks. He touched his face and realized he was crying. He looked out at the audience and saw Susan Silver and Michele Anthony in tears as well.

When Jerry looked up and saw Layne walk out, sit down, and immediately go into the first line of _Nutshell_ , he felt a familiar burst of emotion explode in his chest at seeing Layne sing. After all these years, the feeling was still there.

They played _Brother_ with no problems. Layne’s voice was so strong he didn’t need to be close to his mic for the humming and his vocals. It came off looking effortless. Throughout the night, whenever Jerry looked over at Layne all he saw was that his best friend was going to die soon because of the path he insisted on taking with his life and there was nothing Jerry could do about it.

While the audience applauded, Layne and Jerry switched their setlists to the next song. Then, Layne spoke, “Thanks. Well, we’ve been – we’ve been waiting a long time to play this show. And, uh, we’d like to thank you all for coming out to see it. It means a lot to us, and we’re going to have a good time, play some good songs for you. This song’s called _No Excuses_.” Layne and Jerry hit the song running. It was pitch-perfect and on the mark, a damn near carbon copy of the original version.

“Okay, now we’re going to break to an L. L. Cool J video,” Layne joked.

Mike played the riff to Metallica’s _Enter Sandman_ on the bass just as the band was about to go into _Sludge Factory_. Jerry took a drag on his cigarette as he grinned at the band members in the front row when he heard Mike play the riff. Mike toasted the audience with his cup of water, took a drink, and settled back on the stool.

“We got a friend of ours helping us out today, Mr. Scotty Olson on guitar,” Jerry introduced. The crowd applauded. Then, Sean went into _Sludge Factory_.

Layne took his sunglasses off, revealing bloodshot eyes. He began to sing the opening line, “ _You insult me in my home, you’re forgiven this time / There’s no pressure besides brilliance let’s say by day nine_. FUCK!” He pulled away and looked back at Jerry.

Layne blew the lyrics to _Sludge Factory_ about eight times, although the final print of the _Unplugged_ show only showed only one of the times he screwed up, transposing the first and second verses. Toby just figured Layne had been nervous singing the song because Don Ienner and Michele Anthony – the subjects of a huge part of the song – were sitting in front of him at the time.

“What the fuck? Did I do it again?” Layne mouthed to Jerry as the crowd applauded.

“Yeah, it’s okay, Layne,” Jerry mouthed back, nodding.

Layne dropped his head in his hands as he realized he had screwed the lyric up _again_. He wrote the lyrics to this damn song. He shouldn’t have a problem singing it.

Jerry laughed it off. “Do over! We’re allowed a couple of those. It’s been a while.” While Layne collected himself and scanned the lyric sheet, Jerry covered for him, “You guys just get to hear more, that’s all!”

“That’s how these things go,” Layne added.

“All right, try one more time,” Jerry encouraged.

One of the guys in Metallica yelled at Layne, “Quit fucking this up!”

“What – what are you guys looking at?” Jerry retorted mockingly just as Layne turned around and shot back, “What’s my motivation here?” The crowd applauded as they started the song again.

Layne introduced _Down In a Hole_ in a near whisper. When it got to the lyric “ _I’d like to fly / But my wings have been so denied_ ,” and Layne carried that long, high note at the end of the lyric, Jerry smiled at the singer and then turned and smirked at Mike and Sean, silently telling them, “I told you so.”

Layne stubbed out the old cigarette and lit up a new one before grabbed the acoustic guitar behind him and settled on the stool. While waiting for Layne to get settled, Jerry played the opening riff to Metallica’s _Battery_ and then switched to _Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me_ from the _Hee-Haw_ variety show. The song brought a grin to Layne’s face.

“Come on, Randy, get on that tuning shit,” Jerry joked just as they went into _Angry Chair_.

Between songs, there was a lot of clowning around with the audience. The band members would insult Randy, referring to him as “a fucking Frenchman” or “a fucking frog from Montreal,” and Randy took it in stride, yelling right back at them. Initially, the audience thought the barbs were serious. Then, the band started making jokes with the audience and just had a really good connection with the audience. It was similar to what they did when they were on stage during a tour, only this time it was in a more intimate setting.

Jerry watched Layne to gauge when he was ready to sing. He was watching Layne for so long, he almost missed his mark in harmonizing on _Angry Chair_.

Mike took a timeout for a drink of water and then Jerry went into _Rooster_.

When Layne hit that first high note, Jerry looked over at Mike and gave him that “I told you so” smirk again. Jerry and Layne shared the lyric “ _Here they come to snuff the rooster_ ,” the singer looked back at Jerry and the guitarist smiled at him. At the end of the song, Layne just posed, raising an eyebrow, and looked around at the crowd as they applauded.

“Oh yeah! Whoo!” Jerry smiled as he went into _Got Me Wrong_.

After _Got Me Wrong_ , Jerry went directly into _Heaven Beside You_.

Jerry nodded to Mike who kicked into the bass intro for _Would?_ At the end of the song, Layne looked back at Jerry and mouthed that he wanted to say something before the next song. The guitarist nodded.

“I would have to say that this is the best show we’ve done in three years,” Layne commented.

As the crowd applauded, Sean yelled, “Layne!” Layne nearly got whiplash turning around at the sound of his name. “It’s the only one – it’s the only one we’ve done in three years!”

Layne shifted so that he could use the mic as he addressed Sean, laughing, “Well, it’s still the best!” Jerry went into the riff for _Frogs_. Jerry kept his eyes on Layne through the whole intro. Where they dropped the spoken verse at the end of _Sludge Factory_ , Layne repeated an abridged version of the spoken verse at the end of _Frogs_ using the plastic battery-operated Elvis mic that sounded like an A.M. radio.

Someone in the audience commented on the end of _Frogs_ and Layne laughed before Jerry went into _Over Now_.

At the end of the song, Mike and Scott high-fived as Layne, Jerry and Sean stood up to stretch their legs. They had been there for three hours playing music, seeing which songs worked and which didn’t before they settled on the songs that made it onto the show and subsequent video and album.

“Well, we were just fucking around with something in soundcheck. Something totally new, we have no idea what we’re doing but we’ll give it a shot you’d like to hear it,” Jerry addressed the audience. The crowd applauded.

“And our lava lamps work!” Mike announced.

“Goes something like this: wrote a song about it. Wanna hear it? Here it goes: _The senator don’t love no drug program / He’d been a dopehead for thirty years / The senator don’t like no women / He prefers young boys in leather_. This is called _The Killer Is Me_ ,” Jerry said as he went into the song. Mike and Scott exchanged guitars for the song.

“Thank you,” Layne said before he stood up at the end of the song.

“Thanks, that was really fun,” Jerry added seeing the crowd give the band a standing ovation.

While Jerry and Mike were hugging, Layne leaned over to the mic and said, “I wish I could just hug you all! But I’m not gonna!” He turned around to see Jerry smiling. The guitarist hugged him and he returned the hug.

Alex Coletti called Sean “the unsung hero of that _Unplugged_ , because the thing about _Unplugged_ , especially with rock bands, is you live or die by the drummer. If the drummer gets it and tempers his playing, then everyone can kind of play at a lower volume and play acoustically. When the drummer plays it like a rock show, everyone turns up their monitors, and then what’s meant to be this pretty, acoustic thing just sounds like shitty electric guitars.”

**************************

“Do you want to do anything else?” Layne asked and he lay next to Jerry.

They decided to stay in a hotel until the editing process was done on the _Unplugged_ show. He and Jerry were in bed quietly discussing the parts of the show they liked the best. Since they had nothing else to do but wait, Layne threw the question out there.

“You would want to do another show?” Jerry asked surprised.

“As long as Sean and Mike think I can do it, sure, why not?” Layne replied casually.

Jerry smirked as he brushed the pink bangs off Layne’s forehead. “I think you showed them you could do anything with that _Unplugged_ performance. They were just worried about you in their own way,” Jerry explained.

“They doubted me. If there’s been one thing I can do since I stopped being a drummer in my teens, it’s sing. I can sing damn it, it hurts that they didn’t trust I could do it. It’s all I’ve known,” Layne said sadly.

“I know, but you proved to them you still got it. The minute you came out, sat down, and went into _Nutshell_ , I got that same feeling I always did when you sang live,” Jerry said as he rested his hand on Layne’s thin chest.

Sean and Mike were worried about Layne’s ability to sing. Jerry was trying to figure out how Layne could stay standing with his extremely thin frame. The singer was slowly disappearing, getting smaller in weight and even when he was standing it was like he was physically withdrawing into himself. Jerry leaned closer and kissed the tattoo on Layne’s shoulder.

“So what did you have in mind?” Jerry asked.

“Well, there’s a Saturday Night Special concert, I can stand to do one or two songs,” Layne replied.

“We can get Max Perlich to introduce us,” Jerry offered.

“Who?” Layne’s brow furrowed.

“We had him star in the _No Excuses_ video,” Jerry explained.

“Oh, yeah, him. Sure,” Layne agreed.

Layne silently soaked up the feeling of Jerry touching him. It seemed that the guitarist was the only one not afraid to physically be near him. He knew that he and Jerry were possessive of each other, but Sean and Mike were standoffish nowadays.

Jerry caressed Layne’s bearded jaw as he kissed over the cheek to the corner of the mouth. He moaned when Layne shifted and kissed him back. Jerry’s hand caressed down to Layne’s neck, pulling him closer.

Jerry broke the kiss as Layne tried to pull him over on top of him. “Layne, I don’t want to hurt you. You’re so thin, I’m afraid I’ll break bones.”

“You won’t hurt me, come here,” Layne said as he tugged Jerry over on top of him.

Jerry lay straddled over the singer, careful not to rest his full weight on the body under him. Layne stroked a hand down Jerry’s neck, his fingers lacing through the long hair as his other hand slid down Jerry’s side and back. Jerry kissed Layne, sucking gently on the full bottom lip.

Layne let out a low growl when Jerry ground against him. The addiction was so far gone that if Layne wanted to get hard, they would still be there six months from now by the time it decided to do anything. However, his body burned wherever Jerry touched him. So, even with his sex drive, for all intents and purposes, dead, he could still help Jerry get off.

“You’re not getting hard,” Jerry pointed out.

“No, but I can still help you,” Layne said. He licked, kissed, and sucked on Jerry’s neck as he wrapped his hand around Jerry’s dick, stroking the length.

“You do remember that I had food poisoning earlier?” Jerry reminded him.

Layne pulled away enough to ask, “You’re not going to throw up on me are you?”

Jerry thought about it for a minute. “No. I think I’m fine now.”

Layne sucked on two of his fingers, wetting them before teasing the fingers around Jerry’s hole. Layne moaned against Jerry’s skin as he returned to leaving a mark on Jerry’s neck as he stroked his dick. Jerry rocked between Layne’s fingers and the hand stroking his dick.

Layne licked up Jerry’s neck and kissed Jerry again. Jerry moaned into the kiss as he ground against Layne’s groin. Layne stroked Jerry faster until the guitarist bucked his hips as he released over Layne’s stomach. Jerry tried to catch his breath as he stared down into Layne’s bloodshot eyes. Jerry leaned forward, sharing breath with Layne as he gently extracted his fingers before Jerry slid down beside the singer.

“Do you feel better now?” Layne teased.

Jerry pressed a kiss to Layne’s chest. “Not really. I’m worried about you. You’re so deep in, you can’t get hard like you used to anymore.” Sean’s words about Layne being a ghost of himself rang in his head. He was losing Layne a little bit at a time and he couldn’t stop it because Layne didn’t want help.

“I’m right here, babe. I’m not going anywhere unless you want to do that Saturday Night Special concert,” Layne said teasingly, trying to change the subject. The last thing he wanted to discuss after watching Jerry fall apart above him was his addiction. He knew he had no control over it now that his sex drive was gone. He still took pleasure in watching Jerry cum. _That_ was the highlight of his whole week as far as he was concerned. Now he just had to balance his cravings with whatever Jerry wanted to do next.

“Yes, we can do the concert if you want to,” Jerry replied.

“Okay, but can we do some new songs?” Layne asked.

“Hell, we just made up _The Killer is Me_ , what other new songs do you want to do?” Jerry asked.

“We haven’t done _Again_ live yet,” Layne suggested.

“Okay. We can do it,” Jerry agreed.

Layne pressed a kiss to Jerry’s temple.

*************************

**_Fox Studios, California, April 20, 1996_ **

“I’m Max Perlich. I’m here – I’m here to present your second musical act of tonight and I did a video for these guys called _No Excuses_ , and afterwards they led me to believe that we’d all become friends because we had a great time doing the video. They said, ‘sure, we’ll become great friends, we’ll hang out.’ So, I called them when I went to Seattle, I never heard back from them. I called them, I called them. I never heard back from them. But, I know tonight after the show that we’re all going to be really great friends and hang out, right guys?”

Max looked over at the band. Layne and Jerry were wearing similar leather jackets and Layne’s hair was still pink. Layne had shaved his week-old beard. He was wearing the same sunglasses from _Unplugged_ as well as a shirt, tie, and fingerless gloves.

“Well, we’ll exchange numbers . . . later, if –” Layne replied.

“But, we can hang out though, right?” Max asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” Layne replied noncommittally nodding.

“Anyway, Alice In Chains,” Max introduced.

During the song, Jerry enjoyed the reactions of the audience as his body reacted to Layne singing live. That feeling never got old. Layne’s voice was stronger than the _Unplugged_ performance. Maybe shows like this could work and help ease Layne back into doing live shows and touring again.

At the end of the song, Layne looked over to see Jerry in a mini celebration, bucking the guitar with his hips. Jerry stepped closer to Layne, whispering, “I knew it would work out. That was great, babe!”

A week after the _Saturday Night Special_ concert, MTV sent the band the first cut of the _Unplugged_ show since they had final approval. Layne took one look and hated it. Toby Wright was given the task of reviewing the material. The way MTV edited it together, Layne despised it. He didn’t want it coming out at all. The band agreed. They felt MTV edited Layne in the worst light possible, so Layne asked if Toby would edit it.

Toby agreed. He picked the shots and redid the whole editing process, subsequently sending Layne copies of his work along with the audio, and boom! Layne approved. The problem was MTV would cut to Layne doing certain things during songs and he didn’t like the way they cut it together. Layne was looking for something to show him in a more positive way, away from the stigma of whatever was going on in his personal life.

From Toby’s point of view, Layne was always paying attention, whether it was listening to Jerry’s guitar or counting Sean’s drumbeats in his head, but to the outside world he looked like he was falling asleep at certain points or he’d nod out and then all of a sudden his part would come up and he’d be right there. But, MTV just showed him sitting there with his eyes closed for several bars of the music, and then they wouldn’t show him when it was his time to sing – they’d cut to Jerry or Mike or cut somewhere else, and it just looked like he had slept through the whole thing during certain songs.

So, it was Toby who provided suggested changes in the form of specific notes and time codes of what he wanted fixed, and MTV complied. The show aired on May 28, 1996, and the album was released on July 17, debuting at number 3 on the Billboard charts, and was accompanied by a home video release, both of which went platinum.

After what Wiederhorn did to Layne and the band with the hit-piece in _Rolling Stone_ , Sandy Masuo of _Rolling Stone_ wrote in her review "Unplugged certainly reaffirms the emotional range and technical prowess of Alice in Chains. But it lacks electricity in more ways than one. The concentrated catharsis in Alice in Chains' music is still best heard with the amps cranked up to 11."

Despite the review, the album eventually gained more recognition and praise after Layne’s death, mainly due to his powerful performance despite his condition, and is now considered an iconic live album.

On May 10, 1996, Layne agreed to another surprise outing and on May 10, 1996, the band performed on _The Late Show with David Letterman_ , performing _Again_ and _We Die Young_.


	2. PostScript

My thoughts on the _Unplugged_ show . . . it is so heartbreaking for me to watch because Layne was deep in a heroin addiction (and yes, I know he was doing other drugs on top of heroin). His liver was damaged from the continued drug use over the years. He had to have known what was happening to him just by the way his body was functioning that the drugs were working against him by 1996. As I said in this chapter, he was just high enough to get through the show, chasing away the withdrawal symptoms and so he wouldn’t get dopesick.

Although the setting (in a bathroom) was probably wrong, it is true that Sean and Mike argued with Jerry about whether Layne could even pull off the high notes in some of the songs, which is why Jerry gave them that “I told you so” smirk after Layne hit that long, high note in _Down In a Hole_. He did the same thing again when he hit a high note in _Rooster_.

The line I wrote for Sean saying that Layne was a ghost of himself was my own thought when I watched the show. Knowing what Layne was capable of before, and what you see on _Unplugged_ is the difference between night and day. Watch him sing _Down In a Hole_ and knowing that this was the same guy who back in 1992 was hanging from the rafters of a low ceiling in a bar belting out _Love Hate Love_ , that is what's heartbreaking. Knowing how he sang _Rooster_ in Tilburg, The Netherlands, in 1993 when his “yeahs” and screams were so loud and high I’m surprised the rafters didn’t come crashing down around him and then watch him sing the same song so low-key on _Unplugged_ knowing he could do to the song what he did in Tilburg is heartbreaking. Knowing he initially sang the hell out of _Would?_ on the official video and album and seeing the end of _Would?_ on _Unplugged_ . . . and knowing how deep into his addiction he had gotten by that point is heartbreaking.

The fact that Sean and Mike didn’t have any confidence that Layne could do the show and Jerry being the only one that knew deep in his heart that Layne could do it because Layne had done so many things against the odds over the years no matter how high he was at the time. When Jerry needed him to be there where it counted, Layne always pulled through.

The entire show was a success because Layne **did** have a powerful performance despite his condition. He proved to his cynical bandmates that he could still sing the high notes and he pulled it all off beautifully while the same four guys who had mocked him for his addiction sidelining Alice In Chains from ever doing extended tours sat in the front row. The mistakes he made screwing up _Sludge Factory_ (and I think he screwed up _Got Me Wrong_ once or twice, but Toby didn’t keep that in editing) were endearing, at least to me. They didn’t take away from the performance, it added something to the performance that, had it been removed after everyone had seen it, wouldn’t have made the show what it was.

As a side note, Riki Rachtman barely remembers all of the guests who were on Headbanger’s Ball, so when fans come up to him and ask about specific episodes, he can’t remember who the guest was let alone what happened on the show. He has a small recollection of having Nirvana on when Kurt wore the bright yellow ball gown as a gag that Riki never got the humor of. (It was Headbangers BALL, so Kurt was dressed in a BALL gown.) But, the one guest he always remembers because people always bring up the Water Park episode is Alice In Chains. He said of all the guests, Alice In Chains never took it seriously (which is probably why he never got a serious answer out of them for any question) and the band just got it, that it was a light-hearted show and to have fun with it.

There’s a running theme here, Rocky Schenck said once Layne got on the set of _Grind_ , he was mesmerizing and unforgettable. Riki can barely remember any guest on Headbanger’s Ball, least of all Kurt wearing a ball gown, but he remembers Alice In Chains as one of the best guests on the show because they never knew what was going to happen when Alice In Chains was around.

Yet, _Rolling Stone_ wrote a hit-piece focusing on Layne’s addiction (and the subsequent lackluster review of the _Unplugged_ album) and MTV’s editors spent their time focusing on Layne’s appearance and editing the show to look like he had nodded off or fallen asleep when in reality he was listening to Jerry’s guitar or counting Sean’s drumbeats in his head until he could sing the next line. (That counting in his head is something I’ve seen him do during live shows when they were on tour.)

MTV (and the music industry) has more or less blackballed Layne (and yet, they laud over Kurt Cobain every April 5th, because Kurt was the "face of grunge", meanwhile Layne gets a "by the way"). The Grammys went so far as to invite Jerry, Mike, and Sean to the Grammy show in 2003 and then refused to put Layne's picture up in the memorial of the musicians who died in 2002. (Or they "forgot" to) which pissed Jerry, Mike, and Sean off and they walked out on the show.


End file.
